Sunday in Soysambu

So it is sunday here and I have officially been here at Soysambu for a week. What I have learned here, aside from all the wildlife conservation education, is that there is not much to do on the weekends. I am so used to having plans all the time that I am not used to this much downtime in an unfamiliar place. So, Duncan made the most of the Sunday. I was originally supposed to be going with the patrols but because it's Sunday Duncan suggested not to because I wouldn't be doing much work. Instead, Duncan explored Soysambu with me (on foot) and we visited three locations. The first place we hiked to was a cliff called "sundowners point" where people go to have drinks and picnic while watching the sunset over the lake. The view there was magnificent. You could see the entire area of Soysambu and the entirety of Lake Elementaita. I thought the view of the lake was coolest because there were blotches of pink and white everywhere, especially by this one nearby corner of the lake. These pink and white areas were HUGE groups of White Pelicans or Greater or Lesser Flamingos. After taking photos and resting for a few we walked to the next destination which was to check in on how the Serena Camp is coming along. The Serena Camp is an eco-tourism lodge/camp that is being built in the conservancy for tourists and guests. The camp seemed to be in good progress but there is lots to do seeing as that it is supposed to open in May. Lastly, we walked along the breezy shore of Elementaita, passing lots of skeletons of animals, to the location where there there were hundreds of flamingos and pelicans. It smelled and was very noisy here but it was quite the site. On our way back to the research center we passed some impala, saw waterbuck, saw hyena tracks, and some running zebra, and even found an Eland skull with antlers which we brought back with us. For the rest of the day we have been relaxing because here apparently that is what they do on a Sunday. However, I think we made the most out of the morning.